The present invention relates generally to the field of orthodontics, and more particularly removable tooth positioning appliances with the appearance of a desired tooth arrangement as well as related methods, including methods of use and fabrication.
An objective of orthodontics is to move a patient's teeth to positions where function and/or aesthetics are improved. Traditionally, orthodontists applied metal brackets to the patient's teeth, and coupled them by a wire and elastics to exert diminishing force on the teeth in a general direction. This force gradually urges the teeth toward a desired stage of treatment. With a series of clinical visits and reactive adjustments to the wire and elastics, the orthodontist can move the teeth through various treatment stages until a final functional and desirable tooth arrangement is obtained.
More recently, alternatives to conventional orthodontic treatment with traditional affixed appliances (e.g., braces) have become available. For example, systems including a series of preformed appliances/aligners have become commercially available from Align Technology, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., under the trade name Invisalign® System. The Invisalign® System is described in numerous patents and patent applications assigned to Align Technology, Inc. including, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,450,807, and 5,975,893, as well as on the company's website, which is accessible on the World Wide Web. The Invisalign® System includes designing and/or fabricating multiple, and sometimes all, of the aligners to be worn by the patient before the aligners are administered to the patient and used to reposition the teeth (e.g., at the outset of treatment). Often, designing and planning a customized treatment for a patient makes use of computer-based 3-dimensional planning/design tools, such as Treat© from Align Technology, Inc. The design of the aligners can rely on computer modeling of a series of planned successive tooth arrangements, and the individual aligners are designed to be worn over the teeth and elastically reposition the teeth to each of the planned tooth arrangements.
Both traditional and recently developed alternative methods of orthodontic treatment require an amount of time, sometimes up to two to three years or more, to accomplish repositioning of a patient's teeth, during which the patient must continue to tolerate the existing appearance of their teeth. With traditional orthodontics, the patient's appearance includes the patient's teeth in unfinished positions, which may include extruded or extracted teeth or interproximal spaces and visible braces. Even when braces are avoided by using alternative treatment methods, the patient's teeth are visible in their natural color and unfinished positions until treatment has progressed or finished.